Hydroquinone is particularly irritant and cytotoxic to melanocytes, thus substances have been sought that do not intervene in its mechanism of melanogenesis, but which instead act upstream on tyrosinase by preventing its activation and as a result, are much less toxic. According to this invention, kojic acid is commonly used to inhibit tyrosinase activation by complexing the copper present in the active site of this enzyme. Unfortunately, kojic acid is unstable in solution, thereby complicating its manufacture. There thus remains a need for a new agent to whiten human skin that is as effective as the known agents but that does not exhibit their drawbacks.

In response, the present invention relates to the use, as an agent for depigmenting and/or whitening the skin—in particular for eliminating pigmentary spots, senescence spots and/or as anti-browning agents—of a compound of the formula (I): R1—CHOH—CH(NH—COR2)(CH2OH), in which R1 denotes a C11 to C21 alkyl radical and R2 denotes a linear, optionally hydroxylated, C11-C19 hydrocarbon-based radical, with the hydroxyl group being in the alpha-position with respect to the carbonyl, which may comprise one or more ethylenic unsaturations, in particular one or two ethylenic unsaturations. The invention also relates to a process for depigmenting and/or lightening skin comprising the application of a composition comprising the compound of formula (I).

The present inventors have investigated various skin physiological activities for natural plant components to improve skin pigmentation and have found that, among natural plant extracts, an extract of Magnolia sieboldii has excellent effects of inhibiting tyrosinase activity and melanin production. In addition, it causes no skin irritation. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a skin-whitening cosmetic composition containing an extract of Magnolia sieboldii as an active ingredient.

This invention relates to the use of at least one 2-methylsuccinic acid diester derivative as a solvent in a composition comprising at least one liquid fatty phase and at least one lipophilic active agent for the purpose of dissolving the active agent in the liquid fatty phase and/or improving the solubility of the active in the solid fatty phase. The compositions comprising such an aminophenol derivative may be used as depigmenting or bleaching agents in a cosmetic and/or dermatological composition.

It has been found that specific ceramides make it possible to combat skin redness, in particular redness induced by UV irradiation, and that these ceramides, by favoring re-epithelialization, stimulate the healing and the recovery of a normal barrier function. Accordingly, disclosed in this patent is a cosmetic treatment method for reducing or preventing skin redness, characterized in that an effective amount of at least one compound of formula I is applied to the skin. Formula (I) is described as: R1-CHOH-CH(NH-COR2)(CH2OH), in which R1 denotes a C13 to C17 alkoyl or alkenyl radical, and R2 denotes a linear C13-C19 hydrocarbon-based radical, which may comprise one or more ethylenically unsaturated groups, especially one or two ethylenically unsaturated groups. Compositions containing the compound of formula (I) also are disclosed, which may be paired for calming, wound-healing or depigmenting benefits, among others.

The present invention is directed to compounds that may be identified by cell-based assays to control melanogenesis. In brief, compounds were screened and a plurality were found to modify, i.e. inhibit, melanogenesis, some of which were not previously known to exhibit such activity. As such, disclosed herein are embodiments directed to the identification of previously unidentified coumarin melanogenesis inhibitors and their use in controlling pigmentation in in vitro and in vivo applications. This disclosure further provides methods of administering the coumarin melanogenesis inhibitors as an extract or as a purified compound.

The purpose of this invention is an oligonucleotide with between 7 and 25 nucleotides, preferably 20, that is capable of specifically hybridizing with genes or products of genes coding for protein kinase C beta-1 (PKC beta-1). This invention also relates to the use of these oligonucleotide sequences as a depigmenting or bleaching agent for the skin in a cosmetic composition or in a topical pharmaceutical composition. According to the inventors, this invention solves the problems encountered in prior work by modulating the activation of the enzyme by phosphorylation instead of directly inhibiting the enzyme after it has been activated to obtain the depigmenting effect. Furthermore, these oligonucleotides according to the invention are not cytotoxic.